Police are investigating the disappearance of a Scarborough woman who was last seen early this month on New York’s Long Island.

Megan Waterman, 22, hasn’t been in contact with her family or friends since the weekend of June 5, when she was staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge, N.Y.

Waterman normally is in regular contact with her 3-year-old daughter when she is away from home, and has never been out of touch for so long, said Scarborough police Detective Don Blatchford.

Police believe that Waterman advertises as an escort on Craigslist, which may be the reason she was in New York, according to Suffolk police, the law enforcement agency that’s involved on Long Island.

Blatchford said Waterman went to New York with her boyfriend, Akeem Cruz, 20, of Brooklyn, N.Y., but he was not believed to be in the hotel when she disappeared, late June 5 or early on June 6.

The couple rode a bus to New York on Memorial Day weekend, said Lorraine Ela of South Portland, Waterman’s mother.

Ela said that Cruz went out around 8 or 9 p.m. on June 5, and that Waterman said she was going out and would call him later.

After Waterman failed to call, Ela said, Cruz called her grandmother and said they had to wait 48 hours to report Waterman as a missing person.

Waterman and her daughter live with Waterman’s grandmother, Muriel Benner, in Scarborough.

For about a year, Waterman and Cruz have been going to New York for a couple of weeks every two months or so, Ela said. Regardless of their travels, Waterman has telephoned her daughter regularly.

“My daughter calls her daughter three times a day — 8 o’clock at night, 9 o’clock in the morning, and calls her in the afternoon,” Ela said.

The lack of calls is what alarmed the family, said Amanda Seavey, Waterman’s second cousin.

“It’s not just a case of Megan just wanting to get away from her boyfriend” and be by herself, Seavey said. “She’d never do that to her daughter — never.”

Cruz could not be reached for comment.

He was arrested in Portland on Tuesday night and charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

Cruz confronted a woman whose car tires had been slashed and told her, “You better stop talking about me or I’ll kill you” before slashing the car’s other two tires, said police Lt. Gary Rogers.

Police did not release the name of the victim.

Last month, Cruz was arrested in South Portland on a charge of aggravated drug trafficking, along with two other men from Brooklyn and one from Portland.

Ela said Waterman’s family is trying to remain strong for Waterman’s daughter, who knows her mother is missing.

“She knows police are trying to find her and bring her home,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:30 a.m., June 17, 2010, to correct the age of Akeem Kruz, 20, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

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